


a second too long

by karenninaaa



Series: pepperony week 2020 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Pepperony - Freeform, Pepperony Week, PepperonyWeek20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24859312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karenninaaa/pseuds/karenninaaa
Summary: A Staring Game.For Pepperony Week 2020 Day 3: Pre-Afganistan ust
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: pepperony week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798579
Comments: 5
Kudos: 52





	a second too long

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Pepperony Week yall!!
> 
> Enjoy!

It first happened on a fine normal day. Pepper Potts was busy minding her own business, taking a mental inventory of Tony’s upcoming schedules for next week when she turned and…

Tony was standing by the door of his office staring at her.

She frowned. “Mr. Stark, you’re here.” A pause. “Is there something wrong?”

He stared at her impassively for another second before a smile bloomed on his face, the usual lopsided smile that Pepper didn’t know whether to take seriously or not sometimes.

“Nothing. I was just admiring my hard-working secretary, that's all.” He sauntered towards his desk. 

“What’s on the docket, Ms. Potts.” He loosened his tie as he sat on his table.

She just shook her head at her boss’ antics. She also walked towards his desk and put the several folders she was holding in front of him. “Please, sign that. You’ve got a meeting in half an hour with Mr. Harris-”

“Oh no, not him again.” Tony groaned. His pen poised over the paper he was about to sign.

“Oh yes,” Pepper smiled. “I’m afraid you’ve got no choice for this one-”

“I am the boss, why can’t I have the last word on whom I want to meet?” He cocked his head at her.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, so hard it might get stuck at the back of her head. She smiled politely instead. “Because, Mr. Stark if you don’t meet him soon, you’ll lose a major supplier and it will affect the production for next month."

"Whatever," Tony muttered as he signed the papers.

He did go in the end.

The second time it happened was when Pepper was sitting on the couch in the living room of Stark Mansion.

She was busy comparing charts and graphs of their company’s revenue with her laptop on her lap, and when she looked up…

Tony was staring at her again with the same impassive expression. His phone forgotten next to him, and his hands clasped together over his tummy. He was slouching in his seat from across.

"Uh, is there something you need?" Pepper furrowed her brows.

Another second passed before he smiled. "Nothing, continue whatever you're doing there." He stood up and went down to his garage.

Pepper's frown just deepened.

And then it happened again, and again, and again, the way she would catch him looking at her a second too long with an unreadable expression, and soon would cover it with a smile and would say that it was just nothing.

But for some reason, Pepper disagreed. It started to unnerve her that there might be something behind those stares, behind those big brown eyes, that should be uttered out loud. It wasn't a creepy kind of stare either. It was just, sometimes, she didn't know if he was judging her behind those stares and silence, or she had done something wrong already, and he was waiting for her to figure it out. Or she was just missing something big that she needed to be aware of. She had to be perceptive when it came to her boss because his moods were some indications of how some things would turn out like, for example, if she would get fired sooner or later. Yet again, she wasn't a mind reader either. It was hard to tell anything with that mysterious gaze at her, and it started to drive her nuts.

A day came that she finally snapped. When she turned her head to the side and caught him, again, staring at her. His machines laid forgotten on his work table. Which was absurd, because when he was in front of his machines tinkering, he often forgot the time and his surroundings.

"What is wrong with you?" Pepper said.

Tony blinked at her.

That was new. This time it looked like he had just broken out of his stupor.

"What?" He frowned.

"Why are you always looking at me like that?" She pointed an accusing finger at him. She turned on her seat to face his direction.

His frown deepened. "Looking at you like what?"

"Like, like…" She tried to say. "Like there's something you want to tell me. Have I done something wrong lately?"

"What?" He sounded surprised. "No! You haven't done anything wrong. Why would you think that?"

"Then what's with that stare? Why are you always staring at me like I offended you or something?"

Now, he looked repulsed. "Is that how I looked at you? That sounds terrible. I didn't intend to look like a meanie to you."

"Then what's with that look you're giving to me lately?" She pressed. She was starting to get frustrated by continuously repeating her question and not getting any answer. "I don't like to be surprised one day that you're suddenly firing me."

He rolled his eyes, his lips quirked up. "No one's getting fired. It's nothing really-"

"I don't believe you."

"You're just thinking too much. If you happen to see me, like, staring at you, ignore it. I'm probably thinking about some complex computations, and my brain is so far away that I didn't notice that I was already looking at you."

"Is that it?" She asked. She was a bit relieved. "You should have told me sooner! I thought it was something serious already."

Another eye roll. "I told you, it's just nothing!"

"Fine." She relented. She faced back her laptop on the table once again and resumed her work.

So, as Tony had said, she started to ignore the stares. She still managed to catch him doing it most of the time. But this time, instead of thinking too much about it, she would now shrug it off.

It still happened repeatedly that she was starting to get used to it.

She didn’t intend it to be that way but she found herself glancing in his direction, waiting, anticipating if he would look back at her, and held her gaze like before. It felt like it had turned into her secret and personal game to check and score herself if she caught his stare. It was fun and entertaining at first because it became her stress reliever and an ice breaker from her work. And she couldn’t help but retaliate with an amused smirk at him once in a while when she caught him.

But then suddenly, the lingering gazes stopped.

Her scoreboard dwindled down to zero.

She hadn't noticed it right away since he would only do it spontaneously. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence, but it had become her thing to look forward to once in a while. However, a day had come when she turned in his direction and expected that he would be already looking at her, but found he was occupied with his own thing.

She tried not to get perturbed by it. Why would she, right? It was just a harmless gaze.

She tried to ignore the sudden feeling of emptiness sparking in the pit of her stomach.

There was just nothing to look forward to now.

Now, she was starting to get confused whether she had actually looked forward to her little game, or looked forward to the part where Tony would give his undivided attention to her even if it was just for a second.

It just got worse when Tony would bring his ladies in his mansion some nights.

She couldn’t help it that she would start to compare how Tony would look to his lady for the night versus on the way he had looked at her.

But if she’s just going to think about it, there was nothing to compare in the first place when all Tony had done before was to stare at her impassively, disinterestedly if she was going to look for synonyms of that word.

Why was she thinking of comparing in the first place?

Why was she being petty about something as ridiculous as a disinterested stare?

Pepper concluded that she was treading on dangerous thoughts that were never good for her professionalism.

So Pepper tried to forget it really, tried to move on from it because as her boss had said, it was just nothing and she was always the one who was giving all sorts of meanings to it. She would go back to the way it used to before all these ridiculous and trifling stare had begun.

It was then she realized that there was no going back.

When she, herself, started to long for Tony’s eyes that would linger at her a bit longer. Then she would gaze back at him, and everything would just be white noise in the background. Maybe it was because of the feeling? That was why she couldn’t let it go anymore? 

The feeling of getting mesmerized by those big brown eyes, the way she would melt a bit when his eyes would shine with mischievousness, that daring feeling that she could hold his gaze without hesitation, the feeling of satisfaction when he was the first one to look away when it felt like it had become too much, the feeling of that too much crawling in her skin, charging her with electric currents running down to her spine. Were those the reason why she liked it now?

Those were her current thoughts as she stood in the corner of Tony’s office. Tony was on the other side of the room. He had an amused smirk on his face as he listened to his friend, James Rhodes, rambled about some military artillery that Pepper lost track of.

She was busy staring at Tony’s face to care about what Rhodes was saying.

_ Why won’t you look at me now, like how you would look at me before? _

As if Tony had heard her thought, he cocked her head in her direction.

_ Why would you look at me like that and made feel like a hurricane, with all these whirlwind of emotions...  _

She held his gaze. He raised an eyebrow at her in question.

_ Why would you say it was just nothing when it made feel like it was everything? _

_ What did you to me? _

Tony started to frown at her.

_ That’s right, look at me. I like it when you’ve got your eyes on me. _

_ Is it so selfish that I want your undivided attention to me, and to me only? _

_ What are you thinking right, now? Do you start to feel the same way I did when I look at you like this, all blank expression and void of anything? Are you starting to wonder too what’s going on in my head, like how I did before, especially when all you did was just to smile at me in the end? _

Then something shifted on Tony’s expression, his eyes narrowed a bit, there was a tinge of intensity to it, his gaze suddenly hard as a stone.

Pepper smirked mentally in triumph. Oh boy, it was back, The kind of gaze she had missed, the kind of gaze that started it all, like a single matchstick that lit up everything into a huge wildfire.

_ This is all your fault. You started it and you should take responsibility for the aftermath of it. _

“Am I interrupting something, here?” 

The sudden voice startled them both.

James Rhodes was in the middle, looking back and forth between them.

“What?” Tony’s head snapped at him, the intensity and hardness on his face was gone.

James sighed exasperatedly. He threw his hands in the air. “You know what, I don’t even want to know. I don’t even want to be in this room right now. I’m going.”

“Honey bear,” Tony suddenly whined. “Why are you leaving me all of a sudden?”

Rhodes scoffed. “Oh, you can see me now? I thought for one sec that I suddenly acquired the power of invisibility.”

“What do you mean?” Tony asked.

“You are a genius and an idiot at the same time. I’m leaving. I’ve already ranted and distressed myself.” Rhodes walked to the door.

“Hey, what was supposed to mean?!” The engineer CEO called out.

“Let me walk you out, Lieutenant Colonel,” Pepper said. “I also need to confirm some arms report with you.”

Rhodes raised an eyebrow at her. “Eager to get out, Miss Potts?”

Pepper only smiled. She might not be in the military like Rhodes but she was also an expert at dodging a bullet. “I hate keeping the files waiting at my desk, it’s such a hassle..” She walked to the door and gestured. “Shall we?”

The lieutenant Colonel only laughed and headed out of the door.

Pepper glanced back at Tony.

He was staring at her with an unfathomable gaze.

_ Oh, are we back on this game? _

Instead, she only gave him a polite smile before turning to the door.

It wasn’t only Tony’s eyes that could be mesmerizing to look at sometimes. Sometimes, it could be his entire being. There were days that Pepper would admire how his boss get immersed in his work. The way his brows would knit in concentration or the way he would bite his lip thinking, or the way he had hunched over a blueprint deep in thought or just the way his body would taut with the strain when he was doing heavy work in the garage.

The last part wasn’t her checking him out. 

Definitely not.

It was just, the amount of concentration and dedication that her boss put into his work most of the time could be astounding. And inevitably, after a long hard work, pride would blossom out from her when he had successfully accomplished something. She was highly aware of his efforts even though he was out in the casino and clubs some nights. But then again, when he set to work, it was sure that there were things that were going to get done.

So, Pepper was feeling the same admiration when Tony sat beside her on the couch in the Stark Mansion holding a tablet and let her see his latest weapon design.

He explained how the weapon worked for her. He was excited and giddy, and Pepper was glowing with pride because she just knew that his new project would be successful when launched, like every weapon he had made before.

And then Pepper was staring at him, caught up in the light of his eyes and long lashes that surrounded his eyes. 

Tony looked up at her as he spoke, but then he paused when their eyes met.

The light and the giddiness were instantly replaced with a frown. “What’s with the look?”

_ Oh, deja vu. _

Pepper shrugged. “Nothing. I was just proud, Mr. Stark. You’ve accomplished something great again.”

“Are you taking revenge on me?”

She was surprised. “Revenge for  _ what _ ?”

“Because of the way I look at you before?”

Oh! So the bastard still remembered.

“You said it was nothing. So why would I care about that?” She raised an eyebrow at him, straight up spitting lie to his face. Of course, she cared so much about it. But she could go along with this, with the nonchalance of the situation right now.

“Hence, you were saying the same thing!”

Pepper snorted. “Because it was really nothing. Wasn’t it the same for you?”

His expression shifted again, the familiar hard look was back on his face.

_ Oh shit, game on. _

“Back in the office the other day when Rhodes came with his rants?” Tony spoke in a low voice, and Pepper didn’t like one bit how his voice was making her entire being quake a bit. “You were looking weirdly at me. Was that nothing too?”

“Why? Did that bother you?” She asked without missing a beat. She also noticed how Tony’s body had gotten closer to her personal space.

“Yes, greatly.” He answered without hesitation, looking at her straight in the eye, straight at her soul.

And what in the name of paper clips and fasteners was that? Pepper did not expect the answer. She thought that they would keep on dancing around the edge of the cliff until one of them took the bait and fall off the cliff.

She had almost forgotten that the man in front of him was a playboy who knew his way with the ladies. But yes, okay, she could totally play this.

She scoffed. “Why? You shouldn’t be bothered by it. You used to look at me like that before but I never bothered that much.”

“So we’re back at that, huh.”

“You stopped looking at me like that.”

_ Fuck.  _ Wrong move. She was known for being tactful. Why that precious skill had to fail her right now of all time and she had to blurt it out?”

Tony was still staring. But this time, his face was awfully closed to her face that she had to lean back a bit.

“Why, Potts?” Tony’s voice was dangerously husky. “I thought it bothered you, so I stopped.”

“You stopped.” She wondered aloud. “Why?”

“Why?” He shot back. He suddenly put his arm over her and to the armrest of the couch, preventing her from moving too much. “Do you like it now when my eyes are only on you, like right now?”

Pepper could still do this, to continue gazing back calmly at him, as if her insides weren’t starting to shake.

“Is it still the same? That your eyes are on me and it still meant nothing?”

_ Because I want that look reserve for me only. I don’t want you to look at the other women the way you look at me right now. _

Instead, Tony inhaled through his nostrils and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them up. “Let’s talk about this after I get back from Afghanistan next week.”

“Why? Why can’t we talk about this now?”

“Because I might end up forfeiting my trip to Afghanistan if I do this now-”

“You can’t do that!” Pepper said, her mind veering a bit off track. “That’s an important demo-!”

“Exactly, and I can’t afford distractions right now.” He moved away from her. Then he stood up.

She held his wrist, stopping him. Her body acting up before her mind could think it through. But she at least needed to know one thing.

Tony looked over his shoulder to regard her.

She gazed up at him. “Then tell me at least this, that look. Did it really mean nothing?”

Tony only smiled. “Ask me that again when I get back from Afghanistan.”

In the end, Pepper didn’t manage to ask.

When Tony only managed to come back after he had been kidnapped for three months.

Their worlds flipped upside down.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> i should explain a thing or two early. Uhhmmm, there were supposed to be four entries for my pepperony week. but guess what, i only made it to two. because the other two were like 60-70% done?? i'm so sorry. TT i didn't expect it to be so long. both of them were 17 pages long already and still counting and i couldn't finish them on time. I've been alternately writing (and procrastinating!) them somehow. lol. One of them is College AU and the other is fantasy AU. I'll just post them in this series when i get to finish them even if it's late and the pepperony week is over.
> 
> For now, I'll post the other finished au, which is the soulmate au on its respective date. ciao!


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